2024 Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Bachelor's Degree Schools in Arkansas

If you pursue a bachelor's degree in criminal justice & corrections, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #7 most popular program in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.

College Factual reviewed 9 schools in Arkansas to determine which ones were the best for bachelor's degree seekers in the field of criminal justice & corrections. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 432 bachelor's degrees in criminal justice & corrections during the 2020-2021 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Criminal Justice & Corrections School for Your Bachelor's Degree

The criminal justice bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:

Quality Overall Is Important

The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we consider a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a combination of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

Average Earnings

To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their bachelor's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their bachelor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.

Other Factors We Consider

The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.

• Major Focus - How much a school focuses on criminal justice & corrections students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other criminal justice & corrections students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
• Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
• Student Debt - How easy is it for criminal justice & corrections to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized criminal justice & corrections related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for criminal justice & corrections students working on their bachelor's degree.

More Ways to Rank Criminal Justice & Corrections Schools

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Bachelor's Degree Schools in Arkansas ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you. When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.

Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Criminal Justice & Corrections in Arkansas

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in criminal justice & corrections.

Top Arkansas Schools for a Bachelor's in Criminal Justice

1

University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Little Rock, AR

96 Annual Graduates

$32,033 Median Starting Salary

$30,026 Median Student Debt

It is difficult to beat University of Arkansas at Little Rock if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in criminal justice & corrections. Located in the midsize city of Little Rock, UA Little Rock is a public university with a medium-sized student population.

Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the criminal justice program earn around $32,033 for their early career.

More information about a bachelor’s in criminal justice & corrections from University of Arkansas at Little Rock

2

University of Arkansas
Fayetteville, AR

104 Annual Graduates

$28,884 Median Starting Salary

$25,385 Median Student Debt

University of Arkansas is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in criminal justice & corrections. UARK is a fairly large public university located in the small city of Fayetteville.

After graduating, criminal justice bachelor's recipients usually make about $28,884 in the first five years of their career.

More information about a bachelor’s in criminal justice & corrections from University of Arkansas

3

Harding University
Searcy, AR

13 Annual Graduates

$38,120 Median Starting Salary

$24,955 Median Student Debt

Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in criminal justice & corrections has to check out Harding University. Harding is a small private not-for-profit university located in the distant town of Searcy.

Those criminal justice & corrections students who get their bachelor's degree from Harding University earn $6,397 more than the standard criminal justice grad.

More information about a bachelor’s in criminal justice & corrections from Harding University

4

University of Arkansas - Fort Smith
Fort Smith, AR

51 Annual Graduates

$29,118 Median Starting Salary

$18,750 Median Student Debt

It's difficult to beat University of Arkansas - Fort Smith if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in criminal justice & corrections. Located in the city of Fort Smith, UAFS is a public university with a moderately-sized student population.

Soon after graduating, criminal justice bachelor's recipients usually earn around $29,118 in the first five years of their career.

More information about a bachelor’s in criminal justice & corrections from University of Arkansas - Fort Smith

5

University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
Pine Bluff, AR

25 Annual Graduates

$31,246 Median Starting Salary

$27,000 Median Student Debt

Located in the small city of Pine Bluff, UAPB is a public university with a small student population.

Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the criminal justice program state that they receive average early career income of $31,246.

More information about a bachelor’s in criminal justice & corrections from University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff

6

Arkansas Tech University
Russellville, AR

48 Annual Graduates

$26,000 Median Student Debt

Located in the remote town of Russellville, ATU is a public university with a medium-sized student population.More information about a bachelor’s in criminal justice & corrections from Arkansas Tech University

7

Southern Arkansas University Main Campus
Magnolia, AR

28 Annual Graduates

$29,986 Median Starting Salary

$22,349 Median Student Debt

Located in the remote town of Magnolia, Southern Arkansas University Main Campus is a public university with a moderately-sized student population.

After graduation, criminal justice bachelor's recipients usually earn around $29,986 in the first five years of their career.

More information about a bachelor’s in criminal justice & corrections from Southern Arkansas University Main Campus

8

University of Arkansas at Monticello
Monticello, AR

15 Annual Graduates

$25,881 Median Starting Salary

$27,388 Median Student Debt

UAM is a small public university located in the town of Monticello.

Soon after graduating, criminal justice bachelor's recipients usually earn about $25,881 in their early careers.

More information about a bachelor’s in criminal justice & corrections from University of Arkansas at Monticello

9

Grantham University
LIttle Rock, AR

92 Annual Graduates

$37,972 Median Starting Salary

$39,972 Median Student Debt

Grantham University is a moderately-sized public university located in the midsize city of LIttle Rock.

Bachelor's recipients from the criminal justice & corrections program at Grantham University make $6,249 above the standard college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.

More information about a bachelor’s in criminal justice & corrections from Grantham University

Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Colleges in the Southeast Region

Explore all the Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Schools in the Southeast Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Florida	225	3,420
Georgia	224	1,380
Tennessee	220	893
North Carolina	213	1,831
Virginia	213	1,745
South Carolina	195	654
Kentucky	187	601
Alabama	184	924
Louisiana	171	511
Mississippi	169	370
West Virginia	147	904

View All Rankings >

Criminal Justice & Corrections Related Rankings by Major

One of 4 majors within the Homeland Security, Law Enforcement & Firefighting area of study, Criminal Justice & Corrections has other similar majors worth exploring.

Criminal Justice Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
Criminal Justice Studies	360
Criminal Justice	70
Other Corrections & Criminal Justice	2

Majors Similar to Criminal Justice

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Homeland Security	39

Notes and References

• The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
• The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
• Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard). More about our data sources and methodologies.